Svalbard, Norway

This was my second trip to Svalbard and obviously, it did not disappoint. While through a different company, I was privileged to be on the same boat as I was in 2022. A few of the crew I met before were there as well, so it was nice to see some familiar faces.

Like before, the main goal of this trip was to photograph the various wildlife around Svalbard, mainly polar bears and walrus, again. And boy did we see plenty of both. The final tally of polar bears was 11 and probably around 50 walrus. We also saw a huge pod of dolphins, a few arctic foxes, and two humpback whales. Memorable is an understatement.

Unlike before, there was plenty of downtime because the sun actually set, which meant there wasn’t a perpetual feeling of FOMO when not outside shooting. Also, in general this trip wasn’t strictly focused around photography. There wasn’t a sense of competition between boat mates and it was very relaxed.

It’s also important to note that this trip was late in the season, so we hardly saw any signs of tourism or even life in general, other than the one other boat we saw maybe twice. This sense of isolation really contributed to feeling truly off the grid.

We also were able to explore more of the settlements around Svalbard. We visited the abandoned Soviet mining town of Pyramiden which proved to be an eerie experience. Only 12 people live there year round, in order for Russia to keep control of the territory. Needless to say, our guide for the day, Olga, was very pleased to see people.

The most important aspect of this trip, especially being the last of the season in Svalbard, is the fact that potentially no other regular human will be able to get as close as we did to a polar bear again (legally of course). There are very possible sanctions that could make it illegal to get within 500 meters (1640 ft.) of a polar bear. That’s five and a half football fields.

I feel lucky to have been able to experience Svalbard for a second time. It was just as amazing, if not better, than the first time. I’m satisfied with this set of photos, and hope you enjoy as well.